(Scuderia Ferrari SpA via Twitter)
Kimi Raikkonen was left disappointed following qualifying for tomorrow's Italian Grand Prix at the Autodromo Di Monza Italia as the Finn will start the race from eleventh place on the grid after issues with the handling of his F14-T which were made following the final practice this morning. Raikkonen stated:
'After a definitely positive start to the weekend, today in qualifying, I was expecting a better result. I experienced some difficulties in the afternoon, as the car was harder to drive, I was struggling to find the right grip level and I was locking the fronts. That’s why, on my last run on the Medium tyres, I made a few small mistakes which prevented me getting further than Q2.
Starting eleventh is not ideal but all the same, I will give it my best shot tomorrow. We know we are up against some very strong opponents, but the long run went well and even if the race is another matter, this factor means we can be confident. It will be very important to get off the line well and choose the best strategy. It would be very nice to produce a good result for all our fans who have come to support us here in Monza.
Ferrari team mate Fernando Alonso faired slightly better in the session and will start the race from 7th place ahead of reigning world champion Sebastian Vettel, Daniel Ricciardo in the Infiniti Red Bull Racing RB10 and Sahara Force India's Sergio Perez.
The Italian team will be hoping for a solid points finish as they will want to extend their points advantage over the Williams Martini Racing Team who are currently just ten points behind the Scuderia.
Speaking following qualifying Fernando Alonso stated:
'We knew that, as usual in qualifying, it would be tough and that the encouraging signs we saw in free practice should not create false expectations. Unfortunately today, we could not have done better, because even though I was trying my hardest, we set very similar times with all four sets of tyres.
Now, we must look ahead to the race, which will be a tough one and, given how small the gaps are, it could also be very interesting. Usually here, at the first chicane, there’s a lot of action and you need to be very careful if you want to be in the game. On top of that, it will be very important to manage the tyre degradation, given that the best strategy would seem to be a one-stop. Because of that it means doing a lot of laps on both compounds.'
© Ben Johnston 2014
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